Charlottetown restaurant hit with warning letter

Unique Wok cited for numerous health violations for third time in 2017

A Charlottetown Chinese food restaurant was told in December that it needed to clean up its act again by provincial health inspectors.

The Unique Wok, also known as the Golden Wok, was hit on Dec. 14 with a warning letter, the third time in 2017 it had been hit with a warning letter in regards to numerous health violations.

The latest warning came on Dec. 14 where the restaurant was noted for failure to follow proper handwashing practices and failure to receive, store, process and/or transport food or food packaging materials under conditions that prevent contamination and adulteration.

Other violations

The following food premise establishments received warning letters in December for failing to operate with a valid licence. All are now operating with a valid licence.

- Root Cellar, Queen Street, Charlottetown

- West Prince Video and Variety, Bloomfield

- Pandas Quik Mart dba Saunders Corner XTR, Bloomfield

The restaurant also failed to keep food contact surfaces protected from contamination, firstly by failing to provide food contact surfaces that are made of food grade materials and, secondly, failure to maintain those surfaces and utensils in a clean and sanitary condition.

The business also failed to ensure that utensils or containers that are designed for single use are not used more than once, failed to maintain the premises and equipment in a clean and sanitary condition and failed to develop and maintain a written sanitation plan.

In addition, health inspectors noted a failure to provide temperature measuring devices that are accurate and in good working order to ensure proper food safety.

The Unique Wok was also hit with a warning letter on July 28 and on April 4 for multiple violations.

A warning letter is the first step in a graduated level of enforcement health inspectors use. The next step up is notice of intent to issue a health order and the third, and most serious, is an actual health order which gives inspectors the authority to shut down the premises.

Ryan Neale, manager of health and wellness for the Chief Public Health Office, said normally when inspectors note unsatisfactory items they schedule a follow-up inspection. Not in this case.

“In this case, because we’ve seen these violations in the past recently (at Unique Wok) we decided to move directly to a warning,’’ Neale said Tuesday. “Certainly, there were some violations in the critical section of our inspection report that certainly need to be addressed in a timely manner.’’

Neale noted that anything that could pose a risk to human health is addressed immediately or in a time frame the inspector feels is adequate.

“For example, raw meat being stored above ready-to-eat food in the walk-in cooler. If something like that is happening there could be an immediate risk of that raw meat dripping down into other ready-to-eat foods. Something like that would be addressed immediately.’’

Washing hands properly would also be addressed right away as would the issue around storage food containers. Only food grade containers that can be washed and sanitized between uses are permitted.

Neale said all issues associated with the warning order with Unique Wok have since been addressed.

The Guardian did place a call to Unique Wok but the person who answered the phone said no one would be commenting on this story.